Entrance to the gastro part of the Festival is free and visitors will be able to buy tasting portions of traditional foods priced at 10 HRK. On Saturday, 7 September, the national minorities will be cooking in the 128 Brigade HV Square from 10:30 am to 5 pm. The POP UP gastro, music and circus performance programme will take place at the Rijeka Central Market and Theatre Park on Sunday, 8 September, from 10 am to 2 pm.  Masterchef Srđana Jevtić will cook for Porto Etno visitors, while the outstanding musical programme will be in the hands of the JeboTon ensemble and EtnoRom.

Rijeka’s caterers also join in, driven by the Port of Diversity’s multicultural spirit, inviting everyone to enjoy and discover new scents and flavours. The European Capital of Culture (ECoC) and Rijeka’s caterers are organising a special edition of the Ri Gastro event, doubling as an introduction to the Porto Etno World music and gastro festival. The event is dedicated to the promotion of the gastronomic traditions and cultures of the countries whose minorities live and work in Rijeka and its surroundings. In their taverns and restaurants, Rijeka’s caterers will be preparing indigenous dishes according to recipes of the inhabitants of Rijeka originating from all over Europe and the rest of the world. This will take place from 2 to 8 September. Further information is available at the following link.

The host of the gastro programme is masterchef Srđana Jevtić, while the Festival’s food will be prepared by associations of national minorities of Rijeka and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, as well as inhabitants of Rijeka, originating from all over the world, including the Philippines, India, Trinidad and Tobago, Madagascar, Italy, the Czech Republic and many others. Romani steak, Bosnian pot, Pancit Palabok (a Filipino noodle dish with shrimp gravy), grandma’s barley soup, Macedonian Turli tava (a vegetable and meat stew), Bosnian baklava, okra, Indian Shahi Paneer, Coo-Coo (a Caribbean dish), Slovak noodles with kajmak (cream) and pan-crisped pancetta or real Italian lasagna prepared by the Rijeka Italian Community are just some of the many dishes that visitors will be able to taste at the Porto Etno world music and gastro festival.

The host of the gastro programme is masterchef Srđana Jevtić.

Ever since she was a little girl, Srđana has loved cooking and would help her nans, neighbours and mother make dishes – and by the age of 12, she already knew how to prepare all the homemade foods. She grew up watching shows hosted by Stevo Karapandža and Jamie Oliver, who were a profound inspiration for experimenting with new dishes, which her family and friends would then usually try. Her long-time friend and gastronomy extraordinaire Andrej Barbieri was her mentor and the most important gastro guru.

She is a champion of local and seasonal ingredients and is known to the general public as a contestant in the first season of the culinary show Masterchef, in which she was a finalist.

In addition to being a foodie, Srđana is a wine connoisseur and she earned a degree in Mediterranean Agriculture (vinification, olive cultivation and aromatic herbs) in Poreč in 2010.

She loves travelling around the globe, exploring ingredients and culinary scenes, and has visited Italy, Turkey, Greece, England, Thailand etc. She studies food and the world around her on a daily basis and is constantly involved in various gastronomic projects.